JFK assassination pic 'Parkland' adds cast

Add Zach Efron and University of Texas grad Marcia Gay Harden to the cast of Tom Hanks-produced Parkland, which tells of the goings on at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. They join Billy Bob Thornton and Paul Giamatti in the film, which is set to shoot in mid-January in Austin.

I'll have a mention of the film--including why they choose to shoot in Austin instead of Dallas--in Thursday's The Austin Chronicle. My brief will also tell you about a "major Hollywood film" that will be shooting in Austin soon, too. Think things that move... Look for the link here shortly.

Altman almost ended career with a 'Hard Body' in Texas

UPDATE: Harrigan tells me they angled to have the film shot in Texas, but it still likely would have ended up filmed in California.

I'd heard the story before of how Robert Altman was set to do a fictional version of the documentary Hands on a Hard Body. The location was to be a car lot in either Hutto or Texas, just outside of Austin, Texas.

But now noted author Stephen Harrigan, who wrote the script for Altman, reveals in Slate that the cast would likely have included Meryl Steep, Hillary Swank, Billy Bob Thornton, Jack Black, Chris Rock, John C. Reilly, and Steve Buscemi. Wow!

And to think that these days the 1997 documentary Hands on a Hard Body by S.R. Bindler (a high school buddy of Matthew McConaughey who also directed MM in Surfer, Dude) is out of print. It tells of a contest to see who can be the last to have their hand on a car. The winner gets the car. Too bad we didn't get Altman's version.